MILOSEVIC "TRIAL" SYNOPSIS FOR JUNE 04 2003
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - June 4, 2003
Written by: Andy Wilcoxson

It seems to me that Mr. “C-47” is a secret witness simply because he is not who and what he professes to be. He is one of many false witnesses who have testified against Milosevic. As I said yesterday, this secret witness claimed to be a member of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) and a Chetnik volunteer.

The first thing that Slobodan Milosevic did in the cross-examination was set the record straight regarding the treatment of Croats and Hungarians by the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS). This “C-47” person tried to say that the SPS was collaborating with the SRS to intimidate Croats and Hungarians in Vojovodina. Milosevic explained that this was nonsense because the SPS had hundreds of Croat and Hungarian members in Vojovodina and that the SPS chairperson in Vojovodina was a Hungarian woman. It is quite illogical that the SPS would want to threaten its own members.

For a member of the SRS this “C-47” seemed to know remarkably little about the party. For example this so-called “C-47” claimed that he had joined the SRS in 1990, and that he had even spoken with Vojislav Seselj in the autumn of 1990 about matters pertaining to the party on an occasion when Mr. Seselj came to his village.

As Slobodan Milosevic pointed out there are 2 problems here. The first problem is that the SRS was not founded until 1991, and so there was no Serbian Radical Party for the witness to join in 1990. The second problem is that Vojislav Seselj was in jail when this secret witness claims to have talked to him about the still nonexistent SRS.

When President Milosevic confronted the witness on these points this secret witness asked to go into closed session.

The next point is that the witness spoke about the SRS presidency in Vojovodina. President Milosevic pointed out that the problem here was that there is no SRS presidency in Vojovodina, because (unlike the SPS) the SRS opposes the existence of provinces and favors one unified Serbia with no provinces. Therefore, the SRS has only one presidency for all of Serbia. So it is impossible for this witness to have had anything to do with the SRS Presidency in Vojovodina because that is something that doesn’t exist.

Another false claim from this secret witness was that the SUP controlled the SRS. The witness arrived at this conclusion, because he said that certain members of the SUP were members of the SRS. Milosevic pointed out that a problem here was that all of the people whom this secret witness had enumerated in the SUP were not members of the SRS at all. Another problem is that it doesn’t matter what the political orientation that some members of the SUP had was. Just because one holds a position and at the same time has a political leaning doesn’t mean that one is using their position to control their political party. That is an absurdity. Upon being confronted with this information the secret witness asked to go into closed session again.

Another falsehood was when the witness claimed that he had seen Vojislav Seselj at a rally, on September 13, 1991, in which 5,000 people took part, where Mr. Seselj was allegedly threatening to “gouge out the eyes of Croats with rusty spoons.”

Milosevic began to explain that Seselj had never said this. Milosevic was explaining that this so-called “quote from Seselj” came from a parody done on a Minimax comedy TV show -- at that point for some unknown reason the Tribunal abruptly cut off the audio/video feed.

As far as the Chetniks were concerned “C-47” said that one of their aims was to overthrow Milosevic. It is interesting to note here that many witnesses have testified at Milosevic’s trial about crimes committed by so-called "Chetniks." Does it seem logical that Slobodan Milosevic would be in command of this group whose stated purpose was to overthrow him?

In fact, as far as the command of volunteers is concerned it was all done by the local commanders in the combat theatre. If for example, the Army of Republika Srpska, or the Army of the Republic of Serbian Krajina, or if some units of the TO needed help; they would call on these groups of volunteers, and these volunteers would go to the combat theatre, where they would receive their weapons, and their orders from the local commanders in the field.

Whatever some volunteer unit did or didn’t do has absolutely nothing at all to do with Slobodan Milosevic. He had nothing to do with any of that – he didn’t issue any orders, and he didn’t issue any weapons. Those volunteers went to the combat front on their own free will, and helped the local Serb units in the field.

Even this secret witness testified when he left the theatre of combat that him and all of the volunteers were searched at the border by the Serbian authorities of Bosnia and Croatia to ensure that they weren’t keeping any of the weapons that they had been given.

A number of manipulations were perpetrated by the Tribunal today. The use of closed sessions was abused. The majority of the cross-examination took place in closed session in spite of the objections made by President Milosevic.

Because President Milosevic is innocent, and therefore has nothing to hide, he wants this so-called “trial” to be held out in the open for the public to see. The Tribunal, on the other hand knows full well that this is a show trial, and therefore it wants to hold the “trial” in secret.

The prosecutor changed the order of witnesses around again today, which makes it difficult for Milosevic to prepare for cross-examinations. Then the prosecutor requested that the hearing for tomorrow be extended. The problem here is that President Milosevic can only meet with his associates from 3 PM until 4:45 PM after the hearings, and as it stands now even with the hearings adjourning at 1:45 PM he still can’t always get to the prison by 3 PM. His associates do his research for him and when his access to them is limited his defense is hampered.
 

Sequence of events for 4 June 2003:

1. The Prosecutor, MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF - Concluded the examination in chief of the secret witness “C-47”

2. President, SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC - Cross-examined the secret witness “C-47” NOTE: “C-47’s” cross-examination is not yet complete.